Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Road Course Racing North of the Border

The Nationwide Series traveled north of the border to Montreal this past weekend for a road course contest at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Rain was the story of the weekend, as it was last year, but this year the rain play havoc on Saturday for qualifying. Marcus Ambrose however made the best of it and took the pole. On Sunday it was all Marcus as he led all but the last 100 yards of the race being passed by Carl Edwards to win the crash-fest Nationwide race. Edwards won a two lap sprint to the finish when Ambrose, who dominated the race clipped the rumble strips in Turn 14 and bounced toward the outside wall. That was all Edwards needed to take his first career road course victory - leaving the capacity crowd stunned. Ambrose had to overcome three other restarts in the final 11 laps of the race, which was plagued by 11 cautions and went an extra lap. Points leader Kyle Busch went from fourth to 10th in the final two laps after getting into one of the countless crashes at turn one. NASCAR Canadian Tire Series star Andrew Ranger ran up front with all of the Cup and Nationwide stars all afternoon and finished third. While former Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve made a rare appearance in the NASCAR series and finished fourth carrying the SK logo on his car. Another Safety-Kleen driver - Brad Keselowski was fifth. The branch from Chambley, Quebec provided the trackside services this weekend with Alain Rioux doing a great job. Next race is Atlanta this coming Saturday.